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Rep. Foster Blasts Trump’s Proposed Lab Cuts

Some local members of Congress are raising the alarm about proposed job and funding cuts at the Fermi Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Lab — and there’s some political jabbing going on, too.

Democratic Congressman Bill Foster, the physicist, has Argonne Lab in his district. He says Democrats in Illinois’ Congressional delegation sent Energy Secretary Rick Perry a letter seeking details of the proposed lab cuts, but couldn’t get Republican colleagues to sign on.

A source says the labs themselves gave congress members the information, so there was no need to ask for it.

How does Foster think the budget cuts can be stopped? Only if, he says, Republicans join Democrats in opposing them.

Republican Congressman Randy Hultgren, co-chair of the House Science and National Labs Caucus, was already in that column. In a statement, he says that portion of the president’s budget request is a non-starter.

Hultgren says he’ll be fighting had to ensure Illinois’ labs will have the proper staff and resources.